THE BANKSIAN ARTISTS. 
6l 
Banks did not keep these drawings to himself. 
The drawings ami specimens seem to have been available for reference very 
shortly after the return of the travellers (from the voyage of the “ Endeavour ”). 
Thomas Martyn, writing to Pulteney in Eebruaiy, 1772, speaks of having 
recently “ si)cnt a morning with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, to turn out 3,000 
specimens of plants, 1,000 of them new species, and coloured drawings of 700, 
ail elegantly and accurately done upon the spot.”* * * § They were also consulted 
by contemporary botanists in connection with their work; thus the drawings of 
Zieria and Eriostcmon bear these names in the handwTiting of Smith, who estab- 
lished these genera. A reviewer in Konig and Sims’s “ Annals of Botany ” (ii, 300), 
speaks of the “ vast collection of natural iwoductions, and especially of dried 
plants, with com])lete descriptions and e.xccllent delineations, both made on the 
spot, opened as it were a new world to the naturalist, and to the botanist in par- 
ticular; for these treasures, so ardently e.'cpected, although not as yet committed 
to the press, have by no means been lost to tlie jtublic, having, by their liberal 
possessor, been rendered easily accessible to every one desirous of informing 
himself in the natural history of Xew Holland.” (laertner, who ])ublished many 
of the Australian novelties in his ini])ortant work “ De Fructibus et Seininibus 
Blantarum ” (1788-1805), continually acknowledges the help ho received from the 
Banksian Herbarium and from Solander’s .M8S. M. Deleuze, in his biograj)hy 
of .M. Gaertner, says: ” M. Banks communicpia ii M. Gaertner tons les fruits 
qu’il possedoit sans e.xception; il lui permit non seulement do les voir, mais do 
les couper de les analyser pour en dessiner I’anatomie; il lui donna tons ceux 
qu’il avoit doublcs.”f 
In more recent times the drawings were consulted by Sir Joseph Hooker when 
preparing his “ I’lora Antarctica.” 
He speaks in high terms of the value of the collections of Banks and Solander 
in New Zealand and Ticrra del Fuego, and adds: “ I’aluable as the dried jdants 
are, their utility is doubly increased by the e.xcellent descriptions, and by the 
beautiful coloured drawings executed on the spot, which accompany them, and 
were made at Sir Joseph Banks’ own expense.”^ Seemann througliout his “Flora 
Yitien.sis ” (18fi5-73) refers to the drawings and specimens of the plants from the 
Friendly Islands, and Ix)we cites the Madeira collections throughout his “ Flora of 
Madeira” (1857-72). The Trustees of the British Museum gave permission to the 
New Zealand Government to obtain a set of engravings of the New Zealand plants 
from the copper ])lates; these it was (iroposed to reproduce in a reduced form in 
connection with Kirk’s “ Student’s Flora of New Zealand.” The carrying out of this 
project was arrested by the death of the author in 1807, but it is still the intention 
of the New Zealand Government to complete the literary ])ortion of the work, 
and to issue the plates in a separate volume. A list of the .Madeira drawings 
will be found in the Jourtial of Botany, 1004, p. 3. 
It is a matter for regret that Bentham did not consult the drawings when pre- 
paring his valuable •* Flora Australiensis.”§ His work at the National Herbarium 
was, however, maiidy in connection with the collections made by Robert Brown, 
then the property of .Mr. J. J. Bennett, but housed in the Department of Botany 
by permission of the trustees, to whom they were subsequently bequeathed ; 
and, as the following pages will show, the plants of Banks and Solander were to 
a considerable extent passed over unnoticed.il 
Of the New Zealand plants there are 173 sketches, 205 finished drawings, and 
185 plates; of those of the Friendly Islands — 14 sketches, 114 finished drawings, 
and 88 plates; of those of Tierra del Fuego — 1 sketch, 70 finished drawings, and 
• Gorham, “ .Memoirs of John and Thomas Martyn,” 141 (1830). 
t 4rm. Mut. d'Hist. .Vat., i, 217 (1802). 
j “ Botany of the Antarctic Voyage: Flora Antarctica,” ii, 222 (1847). 
§ See above, p. 43. 
II " Introduction to Banks and Solander Plants ” (J. Britten). 
